Such examples of the importance of disability in shaping our society abound. Perhaps most telling, though, is the role concepts of disability have historically played in reinforcing and defining categories of difference.34 Ideologies of disability have contributed to the pathologization of various populations by infantilizing them, declaring them weak, vulnerable, unintelligent, prone to disease, less advanced, in need of care, and so forth. This pathologization is intricately tied up with ableism, which asserts that markers of disability, such as vulnerability, weakness, physical and mental
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